Today, users can acquire media assets, such as movies, music, or videos, from a variety of content providers including, but not limited to a service such as ITunes or Amazon. Typically, a user will first select a desired media asset, say a movie, and thereafter make appropriate arrangements for payment. After receiving payment, the content provider will download the selected media asset to the user's computer or other media selection device, such as a set-top box or the like for consumption. Users who subscribe to media assets in the form of television content from a cable television provider often have the opportunity to download media assets to their set-top box or external asset storage device (e.g., digital video recorder) for subsequent viewing at a later time.
Regardless of how and where a user obtains media assets, finite limits exist on locally available storage capacity regardless of the type of storage device (set-top box, computer, personal video recorder, etc.) To obtain additionally storage capacity for media assets, a user has several options. First, a user could simply delete one or more previously stored media assets to free up additional storage space. However, some users do not want delete anything, eventually leading to a lack of storage capacity as the user acquires more media assets (
To obtain additional capacity, a user could take advantage of remote storage for media assets as currently offered by different providers who typically maintain large groups of server, typically referred to as “server farms.” A user desirous of acquiring such remote storage would make arrangements with such a service provider to rent a set amount of space (5 GB, 10 GB, 15 GB, etc.) for storing new media assets. A user seeking to acquire a new media asset could simply direct the provider of that asset to send it to the user's remote storage site, such as by providing the associated Uniform Resource Locator (URL) associated with the remote storage site. Alternatively, the user could transfer media assets currently stored on a local storage device (e.g., a set top box) to the remote storage facility so that the set-top box can now store newly acquired media assets. The storage of media assets among local and remote sites can present difficulties. Typically, a user will enjoy a better viewing experience upon playback of locally stored media as compared to the playback of media assets streamed to the user's content selection device using programs like Flash, RealPlayer, or Windows Media Player.
There currently exist techniques for managing the transfer of media assets between remote and local storage devices. Most techniques rely on criterion such as viewing frequency so that more popular media assets remain locally stored whereas less frequently viewed media assets get stored remotely. Unfortunately, such techniques do not always insure that a media asset selected for subsequent viewing will reside in the local storage device at the earliest desired time of viewing.
Thus a need exists for an improved technique for managing content storage.